The framework for a future cooperation between the geological survey of Vietnam: General Department of Geology and Minerals of Vietnam (GDGMV) and GEUS was established on 23 January 2017 in Hanoi, when Director General Dr. Do Canh Duong from GDGMV and Director General Flemming Larsen from GEUS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It was agreed that the two institutions will cooperate within the areas of energy and mineral resources and marine geology.
On Monday, 3 April 2017, the agreement was initiated, when the two managing directors signed the first phase of the cooperation project which is to investigate the source of oil and gas formation in the Song Hong Basin under the Tonkin bay and the Hanoi trough. The work is based on data from two cored wells through Neogene layers near Tahi Binh in the south-eastern part of the Red River Delta. In both wells, coal beds occur which can be the source of oil and gas in the area.